Education Blog

SAT scores drop as more Dallas ISD students take college admissions test

The SAT scores for Dallas ISD high-school students fell this year, with only 13.3 percent of them receiving a grade considered to be college ready, according to data obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Of the 7,663 DISD students who took the exam, only 1,017 of them received a combined score greater than 990 on the math and reading portions of the test. In comparison, 1,212 of the 5,237 students who took the exam last year hit that mark. That was 23.1 percent. (For all seniors, including those who didn’t take the SAT, the college-ready rate was 14.4 percent last year.)

The average SAT score this year was a 787 out of a maximum score of 1,600 on the math and reading tests combined.

Fewer students received a 990 — the score DISD administrators believe makes a student ready for college — as more of them took the test. Superintendent Mike Miles put $459,000 toward paying the exam fees for students to take the SAT and the other college admissions exam, the ACT.

Miles predicted that the scores would probably drop as the testing pool grew. In previous years, some students who didn’t want to attend college or didn’t have the grades might have skipped the SAT. But this year, those students took the exam. The SAT scores have dropped nationwide as more students take the test.

The SAT and ACT don’t consider any specific grade a college-ready score. The Texas Education Agency considers an SAT score of 1,110 college ready. But Miles said he believes a score of a 990 means a college-bound students might not have to take remedial courses.

The latest SAT scores showed some interesting changes from 2013 to 2014. Every student at Townview Talented and Gifted last year who took the SAT scored above a 990. It fell this year, albeit by 3 percentage points, to 97 percent. It is still an exceptional rate. Woodrow Wilson also gained 59 more college-ready students from 2013 to 2014.

Now, to the bad: 10 students at Lincoln High School got a 990 or greater. At South Oak Cliff, where 225 students took the SAT this year, only 10 got a 990. Only 4 students at Wilmer-Hutchins High are college ready. At Conrad High School, it is 5.

How does student poverty and SAT scores correlate? In DISD, 24.7 percentage of the students not from low-income families got a 990. For everyone else, it was 9 percent.

And what about magnet high schools and the comprehensive schools? Only three of the 21 comprehensive high schools had a greater percentage of students with a 990 than the Dallas ISD overall rate of 13.3 percent. They are Hillcrest High School, W.T. White and Woodrow Wilson. All the magnets scored above the district’s rate.

Take a look at all the schools below. Note: The bar show the percent of students with a 990. The first number (179 students, for example) is how many students took the test. The percent to the right is the college-ready rate.

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